The Lactose Myth

Over 20 years, or more, of speaking to people about goat milk, I have learned that there are many misconceptions and beliefs about lactose intolerance. With this post, it is my intent to bring you clarity and even more knowledge about the incredible milk sugar, lactose.

Whenever I hear someone use this term or refer to themselves as lactose intolerant, my mind instantly goes to a memory of a movie clip. The movie is the 1995 film "French Kiss." Meg Ryan plays a woman who flies to France to confront her straying fiancé. In this particular scene, she is on a train enjoying the beautiful French countryside and a plate of exquisite French cheeses. As time passes, the effect of the cheese kicks in and after verbally describing her unpleasant digestive symptoms, she screams, “LACTOSE INTOLERANCE!”. It is a humourous scene that clearly made an impact on me and no doubt, on others.

It is stories like this movie scene that bring misinformation to those who struggle with consuming dairy. Over the years I have spoken with many people who have challenges digesting dairy. If this is you, I feel you. I too have challenges digesting dairy.

These challenges are often lumped into one category, Lactose Intolerance.

Is this really true?

Lactose intolerance is the inability to properly digest lactose.

There is a myth going around. I have even seen this myth printed in some goat dairy's marketing material. The myth is:

Goat milk does NOT contain lactose.

Lactose is milk sugar and ALL milk, regardless of species, contains lactose. Cow, goat, sheep, donkey, camel, horse, or human, ALL milk contains lactose.

For your reference, anything with the ending ‘-ose’ is a sugar. Glucose. Fructose. Sucrose. Galactose. Maltose. Lactose. These are all sugars and lactose is a sugar specific to milk.

If you ever see lactose free on a goat dairy product, this could be false advertising. In Canada, a product labeled “Lactose Free” most have the testing and proof to back that claim up. The milk must undergo some type of processing or transformation to break the lactose down to a more digestible form.

ALL milk contains lactose no matter what species it comes from.

To be clear, almond, soy, coconut or any other plant “milk” are not milks at all. These are processed beverages that come with their own challenges, often including sugars and other added ingredients.

Cow milk, goat milk, sheep milk, all milk, contain lactose.

Lactose can and does create undesirable symptoms in people who lack the digestive enzyme to break down lactose into more digestible sugars.

My husband Will is lactose intolerant. His symptoms are not at all similar to what Meg Ryan's character experienced on that train in France. His biggest symptom is joint pain. Inflammation of his joints that creeps up within hours or not until the next day. Sometimes the inflammation is so bad he cannot bend his fingers. As a milk drinking teenager, Will was SKINNY! He still is relatively thin now and back in high school, he was a bone rack. While away at university living on a student's budget, Will stopped drinking milk. Miraculously, he started putting on weight.

Today, Will consumes lots of different dairy products. How is this possible when he is lactose intolerant?

It is possible if milk is processed or transformed in certain ways.

When dairy products are made in the traditional way, using beneficial microbes and time, lactose is naturally broken down into lactic acid, glucose and galactose. Glucose and galactose are simple sugars that the body can easily digest.

Will, who is lactose intolerant, can eat any and all dairy products including artisan cheeses, yogurt, and kefir as long as they are properly fermented during the make process. He can consume cow, goat and sheep cheeses with NO undesirable side effects.

Will CANNOT drink milk from any species. Even goat which is one of the easiest milks to digest.

One challenge with the dairy industry is that financial margins are small. For this reason, many of the big dairy processors wish to speed up the process of cheesemaking and have shorter fermentation times. Microbes simply do not have time to complete their work and much of the lactose is not broken down during the cheesemaking process.

Have you noticed the extensive ingredient list on some yogurts out there? In some cases, these extra ingredients relieve the need for a proper fermentation time and the result is yogurt with lactose still present.

At River’s Edge Goat Dairy, we properly ferment all our dairy products. (with the exception of milk of course, which is not fermented at all) If we didn’t, Will would not be able to consume them and neither would many of you.

Over the years we have met many people who have similar digestive issues with lactose as Will does.

We have even more clients like myself, who are challenged with dairy and are NOT lactose intolerant!

My guess is that Meg Ryan's character on that train eating traditionally made cheeses was not lactose intolerant at all, rather she had challenges digesting the protein in the cheese, like I do.

Cow dairy is an out for me. So is sheep dairy. Milk, cheese, yogurt, the result is always the same, low energy, bloating and an overall feeling of 'blah'.

I remember not enjoying cow milk as a child. I could never explain it as there wasn’t much talk of food intolerances in the 1980s. It wasn't the taste, it simply left me not feeling great. I remember my grandmother had goat milk on occasion that she purchased at the Hamilton Framers Market. This milk was sweet and delicious, and it left me feeling great! I would go home and tell my mom that I wanted goat milk. She would laugh at me lovingly and we always looked for goat milk in the grocery store with no luck of finding any.

If I had not experienced that sweet, delicious goat milk as a child, I am not sure I would be milking goats today. Thankfully I experienced sweet, delicious goat milk and I knew it was possible to produce beautiful, sweet, clean tasting goat milk.

So, which category do you fall under?

Are you lactose intolerant or cow milk protein intolerant or other? Or perhaps neither? I know some of you are intolerant to cow, goat and sheep milk. If this is you, you could be lactose intolerant or simply find all dairy difficult to digest.

AND just to confuse matters, I also find I cannot digest goat dairy when the goats have been fed fermented feeds such as corn silage or haylage (fermented corn plant or fermented hay), so essentially all of the goat cheeses in the grocery store are not an option for me even if I did like the taste of commercially made goat dairy.

I have found that what the goats eat determines whether I can consume the dairy or not.

I love cheese and milk, yogurt and kefir.

It is this love of dairy products that keeps me going to produce grass-fed goat dairy that is processed in the traditional way that dairy has been made for thousands of years.

It is people similar to Will and myself and your gratitude for our products that keeps me producing.

No matter where you sit with dairy, I appreciate your time to read about lactose and support our small and unique farm. Currently, there are not many dairies like ours in North America. My vision of agriculture in Ontario and Canada for the future includes many more farms like ours that produce wholesome nutrition while improving soil health and human health.

Your support of our farm and others like ours, by purchasing our products, spreading the word and encouraging other retailers to carry better quality products, this vision will one day become reality.